01/17/2015

Italian police have seized more assets from suspected fronts for fugitive "boss of bosses" Matteo Messina Denaro from Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia as reported by ANSA: "the assets involved in Friday's operation belonged to businessman Salvatore Angelo and alleged mafioso Antonio Nastasi and his wife Antonina Italia, all of whom had been convicted of mafia ties and registering false assets."

Soon the Mafia boss won't have a proverbial pot to piss in except for the one in a prison cell.

12/15/2014

Prized olive groves worth 20 million euros ($25 million) have been seized by Italian authorities on suspicion the profits were used to directly fund boss of bosses Matteo Messina Denaro from Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia "while he hides out from the authorities -- probably using some of the money to buy the complicity of malleable public officials" as reported by Michael Day for The Independent: "nominally, the olive business is owned by two brothers from the village of Campobello di Mazara [but] investigators were able to establish its links to one of Messina Denaro's right-hand men, the jailed mobster Françesco Luppino, the Italian press reported."

11/19/2014

Matteo Messina Denaro, the boss of bosses for the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra, has been a fugitive since 1993 but others in his clan have not been able to evade justice including sixteen suspects who were busted this morning in Palermo as reported by ANSA.

The fugitive has been been convicted for, among other things, his role in murdering Giuseppe Di Matteo, the 13-year-old son of mobster-turned-informant Santino Di Matteo, who "was kept by abductors for nearly two years before being strangled and dissolved in acid in January 1996" as reported by ANSA.

Earlier this year several close relatives to Messina Denaro were busted, and Italian police said "that they have never been so close as they are now to capturing" him as reported by ANSA.

The fugitive has been been convicted for, among other things, his role in murdering Giuseppe Di Matteo, the 13-year-old son of mobster-turned-informant Santino Di Matteo, who "was kept by abductors for nearly two years before being strangled and dissolved in acid in January 1996" as reported by ANSA.

Earlier this year several close relatives to Messina Denaro were busted, and Italian police said "that they have never been so close as they are now to capturing" him as reported by ANSA.

04/19/2014

The support system for fugitive mob boss Matteo Messina Denaro is collapsing as Italian police arrest his close associates and seize his financial assets as reported by Tom Kington for The Guardian: "'soon, Messina Denaro will have nothing left around him,' said Giuseppe D'Agata, the head of the Palermo outpost of the Italian interior ministry-run anti-mafia task force, the DIA, which brings together Italy's various, and often competing police forces."

03/28/2014

Fugitive mob boss Matteo Messina Denaro has a reputation as a degenerate playboy but apparently his wild days have worn down the 52-year-old who now has a receding hairline and is blind in one eye according to new information Italian police have received from a reliable informant as reported by ANSA: "it marks the first time since 2011 that investigators were able to update the computer simulated portrait of the appearance of the crime boss, who is one of the world's 10 most-wanted men according to Interpol."

Messina Denaro has been been convicted for, among other things, his role in murdering Giuseppe Di Matteo, the 13-year-old son of mobster-turned-informant Santino Di Matteo, who "was kept by abductors for nearly two years before being strangled and dissolved in acid in January 1996" as reported by ANSA.

Earlier this year several close relatives to Messina Denaro were busted, and Italian police said "that they have never been so close as they are now to capturing" him as reported by ANSA.

01/20/2014

Three-year-old Nicola Campolongo or "Coco" is among three people murdered in what Italian police suspect may be a "revenge attack" involving rival clans from the drug-trafficking 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia as reported by news.com.au: "the boy, a man believed to be his grandfather and a woman believed to be his 52-year-old grandfather's Moroccan girlfriend were found in a burnt-out car in an isolated spot in the Calabria region on Sunday."

Police initially were unable to determine how many bodies were in the torched vehicle because they were so badly burnt as reported by ANSA.

The toddler was living with his grandfather Salvatore Iannicelli because the parents are in prison for drug trafficking, and Iannicelli apparently was targeted for failing to pay a drug debt as reported by Hannah Roberts for the Daily Mail: "on the roof of the torched car was a single unmarked 50 cent coin, an apparent symbol from the assassins that Mr Iannicelli had not paid his debt."

It's a myth that the mob respects children.

For example, fugitive Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has been convicted for, among other things, his role in murdering Giuseppe Di Matteo, the 13-year-old son of mobster-turned-informant Santino Di Matteo, who "was kept by abductors for nearly two years before being strangled and dissolved in acid in January 1996" as reported by ANSA.

In recent years the Calabrian Mafia has eclipsed the Sicilian Mafia as Italy's most powerful crime group due to its obscene profits from the cocaine trade in Europe, and it has become entrenched in Australia, Canada and the United States with surprisingly little push back from law enforcement in those countries.

The Calabrian Mafia is suspected of backing a breakaway group from the Sicilian Mafia in Montreal, QB Canada for control over the drug rackets, and the turf war has resulted in dozens of murders over the last few years.

01/12/2014

A new generation of clan bosses from Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia is attempting to re-establish a governing committee -- the so-called Cupola or dome -- previously dismantled by Italian authorities, and they're meeting over indulgent dinners as reported by Michael Day for The Independent:

"It's no longer about small extortion rackets. The new Godfathers of Palermo, young and ambitious, need to see each other in order to reorganise Cosa Nostra, and for some time they've been organising meetings in the best restaurants in Palermo," said Salvo Palazzolo, in a report for La Repubblica. Carabinieri have filmed about 20 such gatherings in the past two years. "Food is considered a measure of their power and prestige. Around the table there are declarations of war, pacts are made, alliances agreed upon and murders are decided," added the journalist Attilio Bolzoni.

It's unclear to what extent the young bucks have been successful in re-creating the Cupola.

In 2011 Italian authorities arrested 36 people on a variety of charges including Mafia conspiracy involving an alleged attempt to reconstitute a ruling commission over the crime clans within Cosa Nostra as reported by Reuters Italia.

Italy's former chief anti-Mafia prosecutor Pietro Grasso said that since the 2006 apprehension of Bernardo Provenzano the Sicilian Mafia has been without a "boss of bosses," and all those clan bosses who once served on the Cupola are in prison as reported by ANSA. Although some believe that reputed Matteo Messina Denaro stepped into the "boss of bosses" role to oversee all the clans "Grasso said that was not the case."

Messina Denaro has been on the run since 1993, and after several of his close relatives were busted last month Italian police said "that they have never been so close as they are now to capturing" him as reported by ANSA.

12/13/2013

Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has been on the lam since 1993, and Italian police have busted several of his close relatives who allegedly provided a "web of protection around the Cosa Nostra chief" as reported by ANSA: "the relatives are thought to have maintained contact with Messina Denaro . . . to help him run his crime syndicate based in the Sicilian city of Trapani and the surrounding province."

Italian police say "that they have never been so close as they are now to capturing" Messina Denaro as reported by ANSA: "'this is one of the most important operations,' in recent anti-Mafia efforts, senior police official Mario Parente said."

Assets worth $4 billion have been seized since 2009 from suspected associates of Messina Denaro as previously reported by Tom Kington for the Los Angeles Times: "police have ramped up seizures of businesses they believe are fronting for Messina Denaro," and are hoping that he "could yet be betrayed by otherwise loyal entrepreneurs exasperated by the growing number of seizures of their bank accounts, properties and businesses."

Messina Denaro has been convicted for, among other things, his role in murdering Giuseppe Di Matteo, the 13-year-old son of mobster-turned-informant Santino Di Matteo, who "was kept by abductors for nearly two years before being strangled and dissolved in acid in January 1996" as reported by ANSA.

12/06/2013

Italian authorities have seized assets worth 51 million euros ($70 million) from Mario Niceta and some other family members for their suspected ties to imprisoned bosses from the Brancaccio clan of Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia as reported by ANSA: "prosecutors with Palermo's anti-Mafia investigative unit (DDA) believe their company, which is reportedly one of Sicily's leading clothing and jewellery retailers, was linked since the 1980s to two Mafia dons, brothers Giuseppe and Filippo Guttadauro, with joint enterprises in the areas of Palermo and Trapani." Filippo Guttadauro is the brother-in-law of fugitive "boss of bosses" Matteo Messina Denaro.